IBM: Valentine’s Day online shopping shows strong growth

By Dan Berthiaume

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Overall online shopping rose 8% during the week before Valentine's Day compared with the same period in 2013. Growth was particularly strong in the categories of gifts (up 20%), apparel (up 17%) and health and beauty (up 15%), as well as department stores (34%) compared with the previous year.

Key drivers of this year's Valentine’s Day shopping rush (Feb. 7 - Feb. 13) include mobile traffic accounting for 36.8% of all online traffic, up 39.6% compared to the same period in 2013. Mobile sales also remained strong at 17.2% of all online sales, up 42.9% from 2013. Smartphones drove 23.3% of all online traffic compared to tablets at 13.3%, making it the browsing device of choice.

When it comes to making the sale, tablets drove 11.4% of all online sales, twice that of smartphones, which accounted for 5.6%. Tablet users also averaged $135.26 per order, compared to smartphone users, who averaged $114.00 per order.

As a percentage of total online sales, iOS was more than four times higher than Android, driving 13.6% compared to 3.4% for Android. On average, iOS users spent $132.28 per order, compared to Android users who spent $110.54 per order. iOS also led as a component of overall online traffic with 24.6%, nearly twice that of Android users at 11.9%.

And looking at social influence, shoppers referred from Facebook averaged $125.24 per order, compared to Pinterest referrals, which drove $147.74 per order. However, Facebook referrals converted sales at 3.5 times the rate of Pinterest referrals, perhaps indicating stronger confidence in network recommendations.